Thursday, March 08, 2007

justice isn't just for the birds

i've been challenged again today by the fact that we in the west do far too little to alleviate the suffering in the world around us. I do far too little...

& if that last line annoys you so much you want to click to another page, do me a favour, restrain your mouse finger for just a minute and read the rest of the post.

i'm a video editor, and i've been working on several projects in the last few weeks for a conference coming up. two of them in particular have just broken me. they have been the hardest videos i've ever had to edit in my life - not technically, but personally - emotionally...even as i type this, i can hardly see the screen for the tears that are blurring my vision.

one is about child soldiers. the other is about child prostitutes. and they hurt to watch. they are like chewing on glass shards - hard to swallow and they cut all the way down. today, during a screening of the child prostitute video [which only goes for 2min] i started crying and have been teary since. every new time i watch it, it just gets harder to stay detached. not that i want to, but like i said, it hurts to watch.

did you know that in brazil, girls as young as 4 or 5 are sold into prostitution. girls as young as 8 fall pregnant. i can't even wrap my head aroung how that can be allowed to happen. i have an 8yr old niece. she's just a baby. she needs protection. she could have been one of those girls except for the quirk of fate that saw her born into a family that loves and values her...

the world is mad. i don't get how we can sleep easy at night, be so concerned with wearing the latest designer clothes, or having the latest and greatest piece of technology when so many children...so many children are being abused, abandoned, tortured, raped and broken by the evil [and i don't use that word lightly] and unchecked impulses and appetites of adults who have lost sight of the fact that these little people are given to us, not to use for our own pleasure and gratification, but as gifts, as responsibilities, as precious vessels which house the future - our future.

these children, who are supposed to be the hope of the world - are robbed of all hope. these beautiful babies are stripped of all human dignity, objectified, used up, then thrown away.

these tiny people house in their little heads horrors that we can barely imagine. they see and experience things that no child, no person, should ever have to see or experience.

So you might be asking yourself why i'm even bothering to write about this. the problem seems so huge and i've offered no solutions.

well here's some:
1. go to www.invisiblechildren.com and see what you can do to get involved in the campaign to stop the use of child soldiers in northern uganda

2. go to www.compassion.com.au and sponsor a child in brazil and make a difference in one child's life. it truly does work. they are transforming lives, raising up leaders who will change their nations. for the price of 2 large lattes a week, you can radically change a child's life.

3. go to http://watoto.com/ and get educated on what can be achieved when people partner together to challenge injustice - sponsor a child, or get a group of people together to raise finance to build a house for aids orphans and widows.

4. turn the tv off and go meet your next door neighbour.

it is easy to turn a blind eye to need. there is so much of it. there's always a good cause to support, another person asking for money, demanding your time and attention, but as Ps Darren Kitto said once, 'you can't do everything, but you must do something'. so choose something to support, because you can make a difference. don't listen to the lie that says you can't.

letting injustices such as these continue without opposition diminishes the humanity in all of us. we are so blessed in this country, and we have a responsibility to steward our resources wisely, and do what we can to make a difference.

we must speak up for those who are made mute through oppression, who's voices are silenced by corruption and greed. we must speak for the poor and the helpless. we must speak for our babies - because they are 'the least of these'; they cannot do it for themselves, and so we must do it for them.

i say again, you can make a difference. & now that you've been made aware - what are you going to do?

3 comments:

You are as compassionate as ever. It is what I always liked about you, Chantale. You inspire hope. The world may appear dark at times but that is why there are beacons of light like you. See you in the future.